TAGGED!

I have been tagged by Dawn - All Pink Girl - who creates amazing cards - thanks sooooooooo much Dawn.

1)If you could have 100.00 pounds worth of scrapbook paper or assorted embellishments,which would you choose?

Definately embellishments for me - getting into using them more these days and besides, I think I have enough papers!

2) If you had to choose between using only stamps or rubons which would you choose?

Difficult one this - stamps win I think because they are slightly more versatile.

3) If you knew how to do both awesome cards and layouts ,but could only do one for a year which would you do?

Cards for me - that's where my heart lies at the moment.

4)would you rather own a scrapbooking store or have your own scrapping room at home (cant have both,lol,) ?

Scrapping room at home - crafting is my escape so I don't really think I would enjoy it if I worked with crafts as well.

5) And the last but not least ,what is your current cardmaking or scrapping style?

Gosh, this is hard to describe - used to be pink and flowery but more diverse now I think and the dares and challenges have definately helped me to expand my ideas, especially seeing so many great examples from other crafters.

Now i have to pick 5 people to tag in no particular order :

Louly

Mellie

Karen

Tee

Debz

This is another card using the Daisy D's Premium Papers Pad -

I love the rich colours. I used Bazzil for the mats, the stamps I bought from Harrogate but I threw the packaging away and can't remember who made them but they're lovely swirls and stuff, the MM metal alphas came in my prize from Karen at Charmed (yummy), and I used my Dymo machine for the first time!

Haven't done the DCM dare yet - saving that for tomorrow so do please call back!

Weekend Update...

Up nearly all night with toothache last night (why is it
always worse at night?), including the extra hour!! Looks
like I will be paying an expensive visit to the dentist this week.

Great result at football yesterday though and a really exciting game! (4-2 to Leeds - YAY!)

Went to church this morning to celebrate some very good friends' Ruby Wedding Anniversary, and yes, I did make a card for them but did I photograph it??? NO!!!!
Anyway, they very kindly invited me to Sunday lunch so I am now totally pigged out. I did venture to the Papercraft show which was advertised at the South Leeds Stadium, only to be told it had been cancelled! So I, and apparently dozens of other people, had turned up today and were disappointed :-( If anyone reading this was planning to go to the midweek one that has been cancelled too! Having an hour or two to myself I decided some retail therapy was in order - just not crafty shopping, but shopping all the same :-)

I just made these cards, the first one using good old BG
and my favourite paper tearing technique to create the heart frame (actually it's left over from the Christmas card below!). The silver heart used to be a bauble, I added ribbon, brads, metal and faux stitching.

The Christmas stamp also has a torn frame with ''that Santa stamp'' embosseed in silver and lightly chalked in blue. The snowflakes are stamped and embossed in white as is the edge of the frame.

Back to school for me tomorrow - eight long weeks until Christmas!

WRAP IT UP FOR CHRISTMAS - DCM DARE

Thank goodness it's Friday and we have our
weekly dare again! And this week it's extra
special because there's some candy on offer -
RIBBONS, yummy. Here's the dare............

Wrap it in Ribbon for Christmas - here's a little
sweetener: Bea is giving a ribbonful prize to one lucky darer this week. All you need to do is make a be-ribboned Christmas Card especially for the DCM (no doubling up of challenges this week....), post a link to say where we can see it, or send it by email to daringcardmakers@hotmail.co.uk for the gallery and you'll be in with a chance of winning. Couldn't be easier, could it?

The paper and file tab are Daisy D's, the border and pot is BG. I stapled ribbon to a tree shape and added 'decorations' with mini pegs then inked a few edges to finish. This is a great way to use up bits and bobs of ribbon and really easy to do. It's also very tactile.

For someone who doesn't like making Christmas cards I don't seem to be doing too bad this year!

Extra bonus this weekend - as well as getting tickets for the Leeds v Milwall match tomorrow, I just discovered that there is a papercrafts show at the South Leeds Stadium. Guess where I am going on Sunday? That's my weekend taken care of!

Figgy Pudding!

Popped into my local craft shop yesterday morning (well, I had to pick something up for school!!) and some BG Figgy Pudding fell into my basket - paper that is. So here are a few of the Christmas cards I made.

Aren't these papers just yummy! The heart is torn from the frame of another card I made - I love the effect of tearing at the moment and it's so easy too. The border came from another BG sheet but co-ordinates so well. Just added a few rub-ons and embellies.

This one uses some die cuts from the first Lets Make Cards magazine - glad I'm using them up at last! Another torn frame and glittery holly berries using Magic Dust (the lid stayed on this time!)
Yet another example of tearing with the Christmas Tree. The silver snowflakes are stamped and embossed in silver. Love this paper - sort of gives a night time effect.

That's me done blogging for today (yeah, right!) - I MUST get some coursework done or I will be on detention :-(

Tempting Template for a Tuesday - DCM

Daring Cardmakers Little Extra...
Now on to the little extra for this week - we are letting Santa's Little Helper have a rest for a couple of weeks, but you can still make a Christmas card for this one if you like. It's ages since we gave you a sketch to play with so that's what we've got for you this time. You can use the sketch any way you like, just as long as we can still see it in there somewhere - so stretch it or shrink it or do whatever else you can to make use of it.

I love the way these dares open up your mind to new ways of design and doing things. I still need to make loads of Christmas cards, so I decided to go with Christmas again and it came to me to use ribbon to divide the card into nine squares. The paper was a freebie with Scrapbook Magazine and the metal Christmas Trees are from my stash, bought years ago. The stars are from B & Q (surprising where you pick things up, eh?). I made the tag and used rub-ons for the sentiment.

Sorry about the photo quality, but I am still experimenting with my new HP photo editing programme and this didn't work so well - full explanation why below!!

NB Updated to say I have redone the photo - it was really annoying me!

Disaster!

On Sunday evening, whilst tidying my craft room, I dropped my paper cutter on the screen of my laptop - needless to say, the laptop is now useless! The good news is that my son has lent me his laptop, so I spent most of yesterday customising it to suit what I need to do - A BIG THANK YOU TO JAMES , you are a brilliant son!

I did manage a bit of card making and here is one creation. Basic Grey papers (again!), various metal embellishments which I like at the moment, Heidi Grace stamps, lots of lovely ribbon and the little rattan heart that I picked up somewhere. I love the effect of the torn edge on
the frame and will definately do this again.

Just wanted to add that these photos are edited with my HP editing programme which came with my

digital camera and seem much clearer than the MS photo editing, so perhaps something good came out of my accident with the paper cutter.

Now, where is that home insurance policy?

Circle of Friends - DCM Friday Dare

The weekly challege at Daring Cardmakers is
special this week because it's their first Birthday!
Here's the dare......

Our Amazing Circle Of Friends
The group of friends who got together to form the Daring Cardmakers back in October 2006 has developed and grown into a huge circle of crafting and blogging friends who come together from all over the world to share their inspiration and their talents so enthusiastically, and are always so supportive of each other's cardmaking.
In honour of all of you who've helped make this blog so successful, and such a friendly place to "play" we've decided to revisit our very first dare for this our first anniversary, but with a twist.
The subject is, as in our original dare "friends", but this time the title is CIRCLE of FRIENDS and we'd like you to incorporate at least one circle into your card.It would make it a very special occasion if for this dare you'd make a card just for the DCM rather than doubling up with other challenges.Please join in and celebrate our first anniversary with us,without all of you - our wonderful extended "Team of Darers" and of course all those who've joined us as Guest Designers over the last year it wouldn't be half as much fun. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DARING CARDMAKERS ALL

I used one of those circular plastic slider thingies that you buy scarves on and threaded the dotty paper through. The Prima flowers were arranged around the circle of the slider. Paper is Blonde Moments, flowers Prima and rub-ons from Making Memories and Bazzil. I think this fits the dare!

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR LOVELY COMMENTS

I really do appreciate all your visits to my blog and especiallly the lovely comments you have left - so a big THANK YOU xx

Question: How much glitter is in one of the Magic Dust glitter pots?

Answer: Enough to cover my craft room!

As I found out tonight while creating my DCM Little Extra dare. I was very carefully trying to remove the lid when 'poof' .....the lid flew off and there was a big cloud of red glitter which settled everywhere, and I do mean EVERYWHERE! (and there was a bit of unrepeatable language in my craft room).

Anyway, here is the brief for today's Little Extra........

"O Christmas Tree. O Christmas Tree" Want to guess what needs to be featured on your cards this week? Yes, we want to see lots and lots of Christmas Trees - that should help you get those stocks of cards looking a bit healthier.

Papers are BG, brads and clip Papermania and the Christmas tree is a 3d sticker (lazy, I know). The glitter is stuck on DST. I suppose it was worth all the cleaning up, lol!

CardMakers United Challenge No. 5 - 'Love Is In The Air!'

It's my turn to set the CardMakers United Challenge and I am so excited because it is the first challenge I have ever set. The theme is LOVE! Whether it's for a wedding, engagement or just to say 'I Love You', as long as your design incorporates at least one loveheart the rest is up to you.

Can't wait to see your creations. Think romantic and have fun!

Here is my take on the challenge.

Blog 'Til You Drop Challenge

Blog 'Til You Drop Challenge No 11, set by
Katie.....It's Only Words......

Katie's challenge (#11) is to use words in your project - not just a single word, like 'inspire' or 'dream' - oh no! that would be too easy! Instead, use poetry, prose, a little quote or a little verse.

I just had to take part in this challenge as I love using poetry as inspiration. I really like the poetry of Dylan Thomas, much of which is about nature, and this one 'Here in this Spring' inspire this layout. The embellishments were chosen to reflect the words.

The papers are DCVW Pocket Full of Posies and the embellishments are various items all found in my stash. I made the clock in Autumn using a circle punch, peel offs and a brad and added
various rub ons and faux stitching to the layout.

I must add that the PFOP papers are just about my all time favourite!

Daring Cardmakers Challenge - Where the Wild Things Are...

Won't have much spare time this weekend as I'm supervising a Duke of Edinburgh's Award expedition (not in the jungle though!), so I had to get this in early. Here's Kathy's dare from DCM........

Hellooooo, Kathy here to set you a really Beastly dare this week! The theme is ANIMAL and you can use anything that's animal inspired - not those diddy little ones like bugs, birds and butterflies (though you can include them in your design of course) but what I'd really like to see is bigger, wilder, more fabulous or fantastic creatures So you could maybe use animal die cuts, animal prints on paper or fabric, or maybe animal words or phrases "grrrrr get down tiger"!!!! You could invent your own wild and wonderful beasties, or go back in time for dinosaurs, or into the world of mythology for all sorts of incredible creatures. How about a card in the shape of a tiger, elephant or monkey? Now, there's a challenge for you.... I'd love you to all go really wild over this one and have loads of beastly fun.

The lion is from DCWV Nana's Kids and I made a 'springy thing' so he bobs about, although he doesn't look very wild! The leaves are Prima and I used a Dauber Duo to make the footprints (sorry, can't remember where the paper is from).

CardMakers United Challenge No. 4 - Shoes!

On to one of my favourite subjects for this
challenge - SHOES!

The challenge has been set by the lovely Debz. She has chosen the theme......Shoes I think we'll have fun with this one, I can't wait to see what you all come up with.

I cut Bazzil cardstock from a template, stamped with a Design Elements Elegance stamp, used velour ribbon sliders from Mei Flower with scrummy ribbon which I can't remember the name of and added glitter strips to the edge of the heel. The sentiment stamp is HOTP.

Pop over to CardMakers United for a peek and please join in - the more the better! We are a
really friendly bunch and have lots of fun
threads going as well as challeges and
competitions.

Looking forward to DCM Friday Challenge - I wonder if it will be Christmassy..........hmmm?

DCM 'Little Extra' - Christmas Words

This week we're starting off a series of Little Extras to help you (and us) get ready for Christmas (yes, it IS coming....). We're calling it "Santa's Little Extra Helper". We'll take a break for something else we've got planned at the end of this month, but then we'll return to help you with those Christmas cards.So here's your first "Santa's Little Extra Helper":
Christmas Words
We'd like you to use Christmassy words on your card, not just in the sentiment but for this challenge the word/s should form the main focus of your card - like in Rhi's "In a Word" dare of a couple of weeks ago So, you could use chipboard or wordy paper for instance - check the link to Rhi's dare and of course the relevant links list for even more ideas.

The paper is double sided Rayher 'Snowmen', I added various styles of rub-ons and sprinklings of glitter. The cute lickle birdies are stickers.....Let It Snow!

I have been tagged three times this week by Deb, Dawn and Debbie, so I hope it's OK to combine my answers as, well here goes.......Here are the rules which you must abide by if you are tagged:1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

1. I like changing the colour of my hair (not too outrageous though!)

2. I like football

3. I love Paul Young

4. I am terrified of snakes

5. My three best friends are all called Liz

6. Angus Deayton really annoys me

7. I have an ambition to drive round the coast of Britain in a camper van

I need to look for bloggers who haven't been tagged, so back later with that!

Great Afternoon - Marching On Together!

I have a confession to make! Although I have been a Leeds fan for years and followed them diligently, sharing their ups and downs (and boy, have there been some!), I had never been to Elland Road. Today, that all changed.

Today I took my son who usually goes with his dad, but with him being away this weekend I was talked into going. I have had the most fantastic afternoon (me and 27,000 other fans) and I am now truly hooked. The atmosphere was amazing - I don't think I have experienced anything like it, the friendliness, the singing, the cheering, the celebrations when we scored and the feel good factor. So, that is my Saturday afternoons taken care of for the forseeable.

Made a couple more cards last night, both using yummy Crate paper. The orange one has a gorgeous velvety prima flower and the rub-0ns are the ones I bought for 50p in Harrogate. What a bargain! Why did I only buy one pack?
This one used more Prima, and I have glazed the large blue flower which looks really good IRL. I added K&Co stitches rub-ons to the edges and created the fancy edge with my Fiskars border punch. Got some fantastic bargains this morning too from my local craft shop (I know I said I wasn't buying, and I'm not any more) but 20p for double sided 12x12 - well, could you resist it?

It's Friday again...

....which means two days off work!
And, of course, DCM weekly challenge, which is

Answers On A Post Card.....

Hello Happy Darers !!! It's Jane here ! It's my turn to dare again .........and I'm still on the postal theme ......yep thats right - I want you to design a post card - and whats more I want you to actually post it! Aren't I mean ? Honestly, its not as bad as it sounds- just a bit more thinking 'outside the square'.....excuse the pun :0).

I made this to send to my son who has just started Uni in Birmingham and we really do miss him so much, and although I made him a 'going away' card, I never thought of sending him a 'missing you' card, so thanks DCM! Just hope it doesn't make him homesick, lol. The paper was in the candy from Perkypigs for winning the challenge and I thought it was just perfect for this postcard.

WOW! Another prize....Yeah! AND DCM Little Extra.

Post Haste

We'd like you to dig out all those used stamps you've been saving, or even use a brand new shiny one and use a postage stamp on your cards. No cheating allowed - no rubber stamps or other such stuff - we want you to use a REAL postage stamp for this one.

I used one the new Papermania 12x12 papers for this - the background writing is in French. 'Paris' is stamped using some old clear stamps that I can't for the life of me remember where they're from. The postage stamps were left from a sheet of stickers (sorry they are not REAL real) and I punched the black velvet heart.

I just hope my French is correct!

So thrilled to have some more good news waiting

for me today - I won one of the competitions at

Charmed and the prize is £50 of stash! It's my

lucky week. I made this maze book from a class

on the Charmed website and it was my first

attempt. I themed it on 'My Garden' and was really pleased with it but never dreamed I would win anything.

I used lots of rub ons, die cut flowers and organza ribbons, which I love and was actually quite surprised how easy it was to make. One tip though - don't ever think DST will do instead of good old PVA - it almost fell apart and a quick repair job had to be done. Bad luck about the postal strike which means I have to wait for my goodies :-(

I also received a lovely surprise parcel from Perkypigs on Cardmakers United - some candy for winning their Windows and Doors Challenge.

Should have remembered to photograph it before I dived into it.

What a fabby day!

In The Frame

Well flippin' 'eck, I finally managed it - only 3
days late! Friday's Daring Card Makers Challenge ...........

This week I’d like you to use a FRAME or FRAMES on your card. You can use any type of frame you so wish. How about a die cut frame or a hand cut frame. You can frame your card with brackets or flowers or how about some doodling - the choice is yours.

So with the first effort being torn up and placed in the bin (no, it really couldn't be saved, honest!), I picked up one of my bargain 20p BG Aged and Confused (yes, that could describe me too!) papers and there, sitting quietly, were my Craftwork Cards frames that I bought way back in March. I chalked the embossed dots in
similar colours to the paper, then dabbed all over with TH Distress ink picked up with a cotton wool ball, then Diamond Glazed some of the dots. The ribbon is tied to the frame. The Maya Road chip flower is painted with Adirondack in copper and the other flowers are Prima, all held together with a brad. I inked the edges of the frame and the card and voila! not too bad a result. It turned out quite Autumnal!

Hope this means my mojo is back?